Indian Students Accepting ACCA Membership to Work in Leading Global Markets

By Manu Sharma
When it comes to education, Indian youngsters are still holding on to what’s traditional option for them and choosing something that seems familiar to them, like choosing CA to ACCA. However, today’s youth are looking for better prospects in their career and what’s better than a lucrative career in leading markets across the globe.

ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), which has been responsible is shaping many youth’s career has suddenly looking up in India. Today over 10,000 student in the commerce stream are taking to ACCA fundamental courses to raise in their career. What’s more is that 400-500 students are adding each year.

Talking to the media, Sajid Khan, Head of International Development. ACCA says, “Over the last two or three years have become active in India and investing through our Approved Learning Partner (ALP). Interestingly for us southern states like Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka amount to 50% of the ACCA students doing fundamental courses in India.”

ACCA has also announced a major step forward in shaping the future of accountancy by unveiling major innovations to its Master’s level qualification. The new, ground-breaking design of the qualification draws on an extensive, two-year review and consultation with members, employers and learning providers.

On the professional front, according to Khan, 7,400 approved ACCA members are presently employed in leading organisations and banks globally. India has over 1,100 qualified ACCA members and the numbers are slowing gaining number by adding about 100 over the last two years.

ACCA membership is not accepted not just in the United Kingdom but also in Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, China etc.

In April 2016, India chose the path of IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) convergence and introduced Ind-AS (Indian Accounting Standards). Ind-AS is modelled along the lines of IFRS, which is internationally accepted accounting standards, and it upgrades India’s accounting standards to an international level. This has created the necessity for a new, modern day accountant who can understand the dynamic nature of Ind-AS and can successfully implement it.

“The ACCA qualification combines local relevance with international best practice. We are excited to bring these developments to India, as it now stands at the cusp of financial transformation, in order to plug existing skill gaps by providing a truly global qualification,” said Sajid Khan. “By supplementing the accountancy profession with skill sets that have been devised keeping in mind the dynamic nature of the profession and drivers of change like automation and globalisation, we are creating finance professionals who are capable of supporting and driving India’s economic growth.”

Raymond Jack, Executive Director, Finance and Operations added that the new emphasis for the qualification is a major step forward for the future of accountancy. “Today accountants are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate that they are strategic forward-thinkers as they play senior executive roles in business. ACCA has responded accordingly with a qualification that offers the complete and essential blend of technical and ethical accounting competencies mixed with strategic leadership and professional skills required to turn students into the confident, inspiring and trusted business partners that employers need.”

“We’re delivering a qualification that meets the demands of professional accountants in the 21st century, while maintaining the rigorous standards of technical, ethical and professional skills that has established ACCA as the international benchmark for accountancy qualifications,” said Judith Bennett, FEDS (Flexible Exam Delivery Programme) Programme Director, ACCA, at the event.

New developments

ACCA’s latest innovations to the top level of its qualification are new Strategic Professional level exams which will replace the existing Professional level exams in September 2018 and a new Ethics and Professional Skills module, which will be introduced in October 2017.

The redesign enhances the breadth and depth of the qualification, with greater focus on employability and the practical application of core skills in the contemporary workplace and includes:

·         Strategic Business Leader – an innovative case study exam, based on a realistic business scenario. This gives students the skills and technical expertise required by modern business where decisions need to be made, measured and effectively communicated to the wider organisation.

·         Strategic Business Reporting – a new exam exposing students to the wider context of finance and business reporting, giving them the vital skills needed to explain and communicate to stakeholders the implications of transactions and reporting.

·         An Ethics and Professional Skills module - making modifications to the existing ethics module, which ACCA was the first professional body to offer to students in 2008. This new module will equip them with the professional skills that are needed in the modern workplace.